Retirement Blog

The Retirement Blog approaches the subject the way Gladys Kravitz from the old sitcom “Bewitched” might -- by poking a finger through the blinds, hoping to figure it all out, even the bewildering parts. The blog focuses on the financial issues that ordinary retirees might encounter, with an emphasis on topics like managing 401(k)s, IRAs, Social Security, Medicare and the rapidly disappearing old-fashioned pensions. Even if you have a couple of million bucks in the bank, you might find useful information here, but mostly we try to keep average folks up to date on what it takes to retire comfortably. See the latest Retirement Blog posts below.

Retirement planning gurus often say flatly that you MUST replace 80 percent of your income and you can ONLY spend 4 percent of your nest egg annually. These are great rules of thumb, but for some people, they don’t make a lot of sense. I propose a different rule, one that works for almost everyone

If Medicare is a vital part of your retirement planning, pay attention to what is happening with the fight over health care reform. In November, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as health care reform or ObamaCare. The court will decide three

Hurray for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the federal pension insurance agency that protects consumers from losing their corporate pensions. The PBGC isn’t rolling over and accepting bankrupt American Airline’s move to dump its pension obligations on the PBGC. Instead, the PBGC filed liens today against American Airlines after the airline failed to make all

I heard a retirement planning horror story this morning, and I’ll share it with you. Because the law changed this year, making things simpler and more financially advantageous for employers, more companies with frozen defined benefit retirement plans are offering employees and former employees a lump-sum payout. If you decide to accept their offer —

If you are old enough to be worried about retirement planning, then you already know women are different than men. Ameriprise Financial has been studying that truth, and it has come up with at least five ways women plan for retirement differently than men. None of them should surprise you. Women want to stay close

You hear all the time that you should wait until full retirement age — or until age 70 if you can — before collecting Social Security benefits. But is that the best advice, or is it simplistic? The February issue of Kiplinger’s Retirement Report illustrates the benefits of delaying in the article, “On the homestretch

Many people living in retirement are feeling more financially pinched this January than they did 12 months ago, according to a survey of financial security conducted for Bankrate.com. The survey looked at all ages and all employment situations, and you can see the overall results here. But I was interested in seeing how retirement planning

As we enter the full-blown political silly season, it’s hard to know where the politicians stand on the one topic that most older people can agree on — Social Security. For almost everybody living in retirement or getting close to making their retirement planning a reality, Social Security is an important piece. But nailing down

Sixty-four year-old Clem Bezold, senior futurist at the Institute for Alternative Futures, which is funded by the Kresge Foundation, released a report today that speculates on health care in 2025 — only 13 years from now. The report says that while it’s likely Medicare and Medicaid will have been trimmed by at least 20 percent,

Last week, Vanguard launched a Target Retirement 2060 Fund aimed at those people 18 to 20 years old who expect to retire 48 years from now. Most of the people reading this and I will be pushing up daisies by then, but for anyone just starting out in life, this is a great retirement planning

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